If You Edit a Photos Using a Software Is It Still a Real Photo?

Unpainted Trees - This picture was taken in "High Park" Toronto, Ontario, Canada, at 6 mega pixel on August 2006 using Megxon C480 4 to 8 mega Pixel Camera. I added over saturation from the cameras on board options, then ran it through photo shop once adding extra contrast.
@PinchMe (193)
Canada
January 26, 2007 10:39am CST
Is this a good picture? I took this picture with my digital camera at 6 mega pixel, during the day approximately 1 -2pm in the day. I over saturated then ran it through photo shop once using the contrast editing tool. I got into a conversation the other day with a friend who believes a pictured edited using software ( photo shop, acroscan, gimp, etc...) is not a real photo anymore after your done editing becasue it's been altered from it's original state, where what you see in the end wasn't there when you first snapped the lens. It makes me wonder after thinking about his points, What is a picture altimately trying to achieve? What's a pictures main purpose? Is this picture considered real? If not then what is it?
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